The thing is a faction has to have a balanced diversity to have some appeal - if that is not so you reduce the faction to its meta and I would not like a situation where you just have a set "buyorder" for items and everyone is okay with mostly playing the same. In that case we should just scrap the idea of individual favors, skills and upgrades and go with the barebone Tabletop Ships.

And yes, this is about linearity tho the inherent values of some races still allow to differ from that linearity and not suffer. An Ork needs most of these upgrades because of the base values of certain ships, not because of the skills/upgrades/favors they take. Some may be meta there yet they have much more leway to utilize the customisation and that is imho the problem here.

Hero/Faction A has realy good base stats and builds upon that with more. Hero/Faction B has to spend its upgrades/skills/favors to catch up with the base stats of B and in the process giving up every "individuality" in their customization.

Another issue is that in Dota you buy your upgrades on a game by game base where else in BFG:A you have to buy these upgrades beforehand. So to counter Hero X and Y you always run with the same stuff even tho you would prefer to play with another setup against Hero D and F.

I dont like it and still play it. That does not mean I dont voice my opinion how something could be improved.

* emerging meta: tanking is viable now so instead of straight up damage ups (which didn't work) they could just go for relative damage over time and play attrition better except they won't have the slots to utilize mobility combos if they do which is why i believe IN retained their +speed mod when everyone else's got removed.

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My POV:

1. It's a dead end from a design decision standpoint. When making asymmetrical games you need these pro's con's tradeoffs thing going.2. When you introduce 'upgrades' as part of the gameplay that tacks on to those traits, what else you expect gonna happen3. diversity do exist ... except that they are sub optimal. only core players will care or notice. casuals not so much.- you could make Chaos go fasta, Ork Zzap snipers etc.

You gotta be a hellavu genius to make all those other niche builds competitive AND balanced throughout at the same time in an asymmetrical game. Just because Tindalos hasn't been able to does not equate to the game being imbalanced nor linear.

So if you're core, you follow meta and go effective build accepting that it's cookie cutter.If you're a fluff nut and or casual, then accept alternative builds are sub optimal but fun with each permutation not necessarily equal in strength relative to each other.

That's it. The game's all good.

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Except now we have Eldar while equilibrium was just about settling for the 3 other factions.

How is it now balance wise ?

I don't know. I'm not an Eldar expert and cannot visualize how it all fits together. But I have faith because when considering only Chaos, Navy and Ork ... it really does look like Tindalos is about to strike harmony. Even mother nature needs time to produce gems. I think that's what BFGA needs too.